Understanding feature use policies

SoundCloud aims to help creators to connect directly with their fans. We understand that promoting your work is important, and we encourage you to seek out fans and other like-minded individuals. In our experience, the most successful forms of promotion are built upon meaningful interactions between creators and their audience. However, there is a fine line between developing these connections and over-sharing with members of the community.

You can be blocked from accessing specific feature(s) on-site if you are doing any of the following:

You’re posting similar comments or messages from your account (avoid copy and pasting, or sending comments or messages with the same links over and over)

You’re following a lot of accounts in a short time period

You’re following a lot of people you recently unfollowed

You’re liking or reposting a lot of tracks in one day (make sure you listen to any sound before liking, or reposting it)

You’re liking or reposting a lot of tracks you recently removed from your likes or reposts

You’re contributing your tracks to a lot of groups in a short time period

A number of community members have manually flagged your account, messages or comments as spam

Warnings We have on-site limits in place to encourage the growth of genuine, close-knit communities around creators’ tracks. These limits look for accounts which appear to be using a feature in a way other than it was intended, and can block access to that feature.

Our anti-spam systems are automated, and focus on detecting accounts who are making large numbers of the same activity within a 24 hour period.

When you are being warned that you may end up in a block soon, you will see this message:

When you see your first warning, you must acknowledge it by clicking “Yes, I understand” before you can carry on using the feature. Please note, if you continue to use the feature after agreeing that you understood the warning that you received, you may end up in a block.

Blocks If you’ve received and accepted a warning before, any time you hit this on-site limit again, you will be blocked from using that feature. You will receive a message similar to this one:

If you are in a block, it means that for a period of time you will be unable to use the feature. The length of this time period depends on whether or not you have been in a block before. The more often you run up against the same limit the longer that block will become, and it will tell you when the block will expire in the block warning.

Please note: no matter what subscription level you have, we cannot manually remove any blocks - this is to ensure fairness for all of our users.

Help other community members find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question.

20 replies

You can be blocked from accessing specific feature(s) on-site if you are doing any of the following:
You’re posting similar comments or messages from your account (avoid copy and pasting, or sending comments or messages with the same links over and over)I have never copy and pasted comments,I always interact with the composer on an individual level.

You’re following a lot of accounts in a short time period. I've been using soundcloud for more than 3 years and have only around 500 followers,around the same amount as I'm following.

You’re following a lot of people you recently unfollowed. Not the case for me.

You’re liking or reposting a lot of tracks in one day (make sure you listen to any sound before liking, or reposting it)I do a lot of listening on soundcloud and I have never ever liked or reposted or commented on any tracks without playing them all the way through. The tracks I enjoy I play multiple times.

You’re liking or reposting a lot of tracks you recently removed from your likes or repostsNot in my case at all.

You’re contributing your tracks to a lot of groups in a short time periodI have never asked anyone to comment/like or repost any of my tracks. I comment on other member's tracks and they do on mine,that's how it works.I thought so anyway.

A number of community members have manually flagged your account, messages or comments as spamThis is one I can't say is true or not,but no one I've interacted with in the community has given me the impression I'm a spammer.

The warning message you show above was not received by me. I have never had any message at all from soundcloud in my years of using the platform. The first message I ever received was informing me I was blocked for three days because I had been warned many times before. This is the issue which needs to be addressed.
If I had been warned,I would have modified my behaviour to suit. I did not get that opportunity.

I'm glad that at last someone on authority has got around to replying,but reposting the existing rules,of which mostly everyone affected by the current comment block is aware,does not address the fundamental problem,which is...I am not a spammer,nor am I abusing the system,yet just by commenting on the tracks of others and thanking them for when they comment on my tracks,I am blocked. This works directly against what the soundcloud community is supposed to be. Why are you not listening to what the community is telling you?

I am by all standards almost done with SoundCloud, looking for alternative platforms, if SoundCloud wants to turn into a wannabe Spotify or ITunes, that’s fine, i don’t need that. the social interaction barely justified the enormous price tag. With that gone, a paid subscription with SoundCloud loses the tiny rest of appeal it had. Guess I might be looking at hearthis.at and see if they do better....DistroKid is already getting my music heard on the big platforms. the way you treat us, you better expect no loyalty, SoundCloud.

Sounds good...but does not work. I have never copy and pasted comments....I do like to respond to comments and made it a rule to comment on tracks I like. Never have I seen any of the a.m. warnings! The first thing i saw is a five day ban from commenting....is that how SoundCloud is intending to treat their active creators / subscribers...am I really spending money on that? Please look into this....or stop claiming that you support creators. thank you,.

I've never seen the warning message and never clicked "Yes, I understand".
When did you send me that message? I am sure that you must have records on your database.

This feature use policies are vague. You must make more specific how do we get blocked.
How you judge on similar comments based on what?
How many times are we allowed making a comments a day? I am sure that you must be counting on that.
Otherwise you won't be able to block people.
IF we know the numbers, we would be able to prevent ourselves from blocking.

It happened again. And again I'm making another playlist to keep track of the songs that I like and want to hear. Thank you soundcloud for repeatedly suggesting that I am not a human. I am a robot. I am the next generation.

Why do we depend on algorithms to monitor activity and deem it "good" or "bad" when the algos don't serve their purpose at all. Either improve your algorithms or compensate with actual human monitoring and review.

I pay for this service. Quit blocking me from liking songs and telling me I'm "spamming." It's my account. I've used soundcloud for over 4 years and until recently, preferred categorizing my music by playlist instead of by "like." I now wish to utilize the "like" feature and thus have thousands of songs that I like and would therefore like to "like." Quit fucking blocking the like feature or I'll quit fucking paying for the service.

I've hit my fourth like limit since having my account and have received the last three in a relatively short period of time. This 4th limit is also accompanied by a 5 day ban from liking. I simply like songs from artists that I follow that I like. That is the ONLY purpose that I click the like button for.

Please explain:

How "liking" songs is promoting oneself.

How implementing a like limit helps from "over promoting".

What "over promoting" constitutes and why it is bad for the overall community.

Once again, I'm here to complain about the seemingly irrational like limit that is imposed on REGULAR users from keeping up with the artists they like. I am now having to make playlists to keep track of the songs I know I like. How are you guys literally judging me as a robot or self-promoting by liking music at TOO fast a rate? I need explanations.

For me the value of SoundCloud has just reduced itself to near nothing...what used to be a great tool for networking, has now revealed its true purpose, cash on on those who create on two avenues....let creators pay for providing content and audiences for consuming the same. SC does not give a s§€t about who makes them alive. Time to move on. ... „Fuck you, as long as you pay!“

Well said. You can be blocked from accessing specific feature(s) on-site if you are doing any of the following:
You’re posting similar comments or messages from your account (avoid copy and pasting, or sending comments or messages with the same links over and over)I have never copy and pasted comments,I always interact with the composer on an individual level.

You’re following a lot of accounts in a short time period. I've been using soundcloud for more than 3 years and have only around 500 followers,around the same amount as I'm following.

You’re following a lot of people you recently unfollowed. Not the case for me.

You’re liking or reposting a lot of tracks in one day (make sure you listen to any sound before liking, or reposting it)I do a lot of listening on soundcloud and I have never ever liked or reposted or commented on any tracks without playing them all the way through. The tracks I enjoy I play multiple times.

You’re liking or reposting a lot of tracks you recently removed from your likes or repostsNot in my case at all.

You’re contributing your tracks to a lot of groups in a short time periodI have never asked anyone to comment/like or repost any of my tracks. I comment on other member's tracks and they do on mine,that's how it works.I thought so anyway.

A number of community members have manually flagged your account, messages or comments as spamThis is one I can't say is true or not,but no one I've interacted with in the community has given me the impression I'm a spammer.

The warning message you show above was not received by me. I have never had any message at all from soundcloud in my years of using the platform. The first message I ever received was informing me I was blocked for three days because I had been warned many times before. This is the issue which needs to be addressed.
If I had been warned,I would have modified my behaviour to suit. I did not get that opportunity.

I'm glad that at last someone on authority has got around to replying,but reposting the existing rules,of which mostly everyone affected by the current comment block is aware,does not address the fundamental problem,which is...I am not a spammer,nor am I abusing the system,yet just by commenting on the tracks of others and thanking them for when they comment on my tracks,I am blocked. This works directly against what the soundcloud community is supposed to be. Why are you not listening to what the community is telling you?

Hello!
help me please to understand what for I was blocked??i added people I want to follow and get warning but didn’t read it actually, and after blocked and now I can’t answer to people who want follow me..why you guys doing this? I really can’t understand what for I was blocked I didn’t send spam or any messages to other users, I just want to follow people I think interesting. Why it’s somthing bad?
thank you.
Nina

Yeah, people who pay for subscription are most certainly not bots and they should be allowed to like whatever they want.

As a music curator myself at the end/beginning of each month I search for list of around 300 songs to choose from for my blog. I like each of them to keep track of what song was already added - but after clicking on 100 likes I am automatically banned from any other action for a certain amount of time which is frustrating

Hello.
can you tell me why I can’t add followers???recently I was block for I add people I like to follow, thnx I was unblocked.BUT! Why I can’t reply on people who start following me? I can add only 1 follower .GUYS WTF???? Why this happens??
Please take of this block or whatever it is! I want to response to people!
I never did so that bad and can’t understand why u blocking me all time.this is embarrassing. Honestly .
Thank youfor understanding
best wishes
Nina (AfterEgo)

Hi, I am unable to repost songs, as I was unaware that reposting too many songs will result in a block being put on your account. I am using this account for an educational project in an undergraduate course, and the project is due tomorrow. I'm hoping to find out when the block will be lifted.

I was just restricted? I NEVER received any warning as specified in the SC use policy. This is the second time this has happened to me. I am now blocked for 5 days???? Again...I NEVER received a warning!!!

Cookie policy

Cookie settings

We use 3 different kinds of cookies. You can choose which cookies you want to accept. We need basic cookies to make this site work, therefore these are the minimum you can select. Learn more about our cookies.